A river port, markets, warehouses and even a rare theater with a roof. The prosperous city of Interamna Lirenas, a former Roman colony located in central Italy that boomed continuously well into the 3rd century AD, defies everything we thought about the decline of the Roman Empire.
Archaeologists from the University of Cambridge have spent the last 13 years studying the site in southern Latium, between the Liri and Spalla Bassa rivers (hence the name interamna, which means ‘between the rivers’ in Latin). Their work, published in the book Roman Urbanism in Italy, has revealed a surprisingly detailed picture of the site’s layout.
“We started studying a site so unpromising that no one had tried to excavate it before, which is very rare in Italy,” says Dr. Alessandro Launaro, lead author of the study. A failed backwater in the center of the peninsula that has ended up testifying that the crisis of the Empire was not homogeneous.
“There was nothing on the surface, no visible evidence of buildings, just pieces of broken pottery. But what we discovered while digging was not a backwater, far from it. We found a prosperous city that adapted to all the challenges that were presented to it during 900 years (it was founded in 312 BC),” says Launaro.
The analysis of the ceramics indicates that the decline of this enclave began about 300 years later than previously assumed and the geophysical study carried out has made it possible to find a wide and impressive range of urban features that no one expected to discover.
“We’re not saying this city was special, it’s much more exciting than that. We believe that many other average Roman cities in Italy were just as resilient. “It’s just that archaeologists have recently begun to apply the right techniques and approaches to see this,” the expert adds.
Forty years ago, Canadian archaeologists studied the distribution of high-end ceramic sherds and amphorae in the soil above Interamna Lirenas and concluded that occupation of the city peaked between the late 2nd and early 1st centuries BC. (around 30 hectares), before being reduced to around 10 in the 1st century AD.
But Launaro and his colleagues mapped the development of the municipality using a much larger and more reliable set of excavated evidence: tens of thousands of pieces of common pottery. This showed that the city actually resisted decline until the end of the 3rd century AD, about 300 years later than previously assumed. At its peak, the city would have been home to about 2,000 people.
“Based on the relative lack of imported ceramics, specialists had assumed that Interamna Lirenas was a backwater in decline. We now know that this was not the case,” Alessandro Launaro says in a statement.
Interamna Lirenas obtained the patronage of Julius Caesar in 46 BC, but the Cambridge University expert maintains that this does not make it exceptional or explain the city’s successful long-term permanence. Rather, his latest findings help explain why the city attracted Caesar.
“It was strategically located between a river and a main road, and was a prosperous node in the regional urban network. It would have been valuable to Julius Caesar in his attempt to consolidate support throughout Italy during the civil wars. The city, furthermore, played his letters well, forging relationships with Rome and southern Italy while thriving as a commercial center,” he says.
Among the discovered spaces, a large warehouse, a temple and a bath complex near the Liri River stand out. These structures would indicate the presence of a river port between the end of the 1st century BC. and the 4th century after Christ. “River ports don’t just need warehouses. People spent a lot of time working and relaxing in the surrounding areas, so they needed all kinds of amenities,” says Launaro.
Emperor Claudius planned to divert waters from a lake into the Liri River to make it even more navigable than it already was. “The port allowed Interamna Lirenas to benefit from trade between Aquinas and Cassino, key centers to the north, and Minturno and the Tyrrhenian coast to the southeast. It was crucial to the city’s success.”
On the northwest side of the city, archaeologists discovered the remains of a covered theater that rose above an open terrace and could have held 1,500 people. These types of infrastructures are quite rare in Roman Italy and represent a significant improvement on open-air structures, from an acoustic, architectural and financial point of view. The theater had various marbles imported from all over the central and eastern Mediterranean.
“This theater was an important status symbol. It showed the wealth, power and ambition of the city. The fact that the city chose to erect such a refined building does not fit with a decaying backwater,” says Launaro. And when the Empire began to have difficulties, this theater was still in operation.
The city also had three impressive bath complexes. The largest of them was approximately 2,400 square meters and featured a large swimming pool surrounded by a portico. An inscription from the year 408 says that Marcus Sentius Redemptus saved the establishment from “collapse” and kept it running with his benefices.
Like Pompeii and Herculaneum, Interamna Lirenas offers no sign of separation by social status. A total of 190 of the town’s houses (84%) were small (less than 500 m2), interspersed with 25 larger houses (500-1000 m2) and only five homes larger than 1000 square meters.
Nineteen large buildings, mostly located some distance from the forum, may have served as indoor market buildings (macella), guild houses (scholae), apartment blocks and, above all, public warehouses (horrea). This suggests that the city was an important commercial center serving larger centers including Aquino and Cassino.
A large open space to the south-east of the town may have served as a sheep and cattle market, causing the town to play a key role in the region’s thriving wool trade. Alessandro Launaro argues that the inhabitants probably abandoned the enclave amid growing insecurity – before the Lombard invasion of the late 6th century AD – because they knew they were on a direct route that barbarian armies would surely use.